


Reunion - The Ocean and The Sky

by neverstoppedlovingyou



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Airbending & Airbenders, Avatar, Big Brother Sokka (Avatar), Candlenights, Dinner, Earthbending & Earthbenders, Established Relationship, F/M, Family, Firebending & Firebenders, First Dates, Friends to Lovers, Marriage Proposal, Necklaces, Post-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Waterbending & Waterbenders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:47:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29449521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neverstoppedlovingyou/pseuds/neverstoppedlovingyou
Summary: 23 year old Katara reunites with 21 year old Aang after 5 months of being in the Southern Water Tribe and they both have surprises for each other.
Relationships: Aang & Katara (Avatar), Aang/Katara (Avatar), Sokka & Suki (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)





	Reunion - The Ocean and The Sky

**Author's Note:**

> reuploaded from my wattpad @/jeterosexual
> 
> i literally did not like full proof read this so sorry about that besties, im also aware this fic kinda sucks? anyways enjoy.

Katara looks into the seemingly endless deep blue sky, her left hand clutching onto a piece of silky, smooth fabric. The few stars that are out there reflecting their light onto her face, highlighting her pearly azure eyes. Distracted in the beauty of the stunning horizon displaying the inky, kind natured and peaceful sky and the calming, yet intimidating ocean nearly colliding. A hand laying on her shoulder startles her and in the heat of the moment, she is no longer intimidated by the ocean, forcing her own will against it, pushing the icy cold water towards her as she is rotating her body, splashing the water against the unknown figure behind her as she shuts her eyes out of fear. Staying in that position for a split second, a familiar voice to her lets out a groan, bringing her comfort as she opens her eyes to end up being face to face with her brother, Sokka, drenched in water on the wood panelled floor of the water tribe ship. Katara immediately re-enters a state of shock, however not in a fight or flight mode situation. Guilt rushes over her as she cusps her hands over her mouth. She immediately reaches over one of her arms to help lift Sokka up. Sokka gets up and in a groggy and annoyed tone he says through his teeth in a sarcastic tone,

"I was going to check up on you and see if you were okay, but judging by the fact that im soaked, I'm assuming you are fine." he sighs as he flicks a drop of water off of his forehead. He takes his navy blue, thick coated sleeve and wipes the rest of the water off of his face. Katara now sharing a similar mood as Sokka, take his arm and yanks it from his face.  
"Now you really didn't have to do that, I don't know if you forgot in the past 2 minutes but I am a waterbender." Frustrated by him making his new coat that she had sewn for him all wet, she pauses for a moment and then spits out in a more concerning tone,

"I'm sorry about doing that, I'm just really anxious about heading back to republic city-" Sokka cuts her off mid sentence,

"Katara we talked about this before we left, it's the whole reason I'm coming with you," Katara shoots him a stare "OKAY, maybe I also came because I can't wait to see Suki but what's wrong now."

"I know I told you I was worried about Aang, but I might have lied about the reason why... I'm sorry." Katara leans back against the ledge separating her from the oceans and turns her head, no longer making eye contact with Sokka.

"You don't have to be sorry Katara, I can understand if you weren't comfortable telling me before we left." He voices his concern as he rests his hand on her shoulder, cautiously this time. A tear sheds down her face as she looks at her hand grasping the piece of cloth from earlier as she utters...

"I just... you see, I'm making something really special for Aang but I don't know if he's going to like it or not." She pulls her left hand up to her heart. Sokka's curiosity takes over him as he leans over to grab her hand.  
" What are you holding on to?" He asks, tilting his head to try to get a better look at what's she has cusped in her hand.

"None of your business" Katara lashes out, pulling her left hand back and turning around to face the vast ocean, trying to ignore Sokka as she rests her head into her fists, taking a deep breath.

" I know you are kind of mad at me or whatever, but knowing Aang for almost 10 years at this point, he literally appreciates everything you do, I'm sure whatever you made for him, he'll love it," Sokka states in a comforting tone. As he is about to spit out a few more words, Katara spins around and leaps in to hug Sokka. As she is wrapped around him she lets her emotions lose and starts crying tears of happiness. She lets go of him and wipes her tears away.

"Goodnight Katara."

"Goodnight Sokka." Sokka follows Katara below the deck to their room on the boat. While she is unpinning her hair loopies, she jumps onto her hammock, facing the wall as she closes her eyes. She can't believe that she is finally going to see Aang

_'After all this time'_

she thinks to herself, almost letting her excited thoughts get in the way of her sleeping.

 _'Okay, go to sleep Katara'_ she slowly closes her eyes and falls asleep

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's around 11 in the morning, Katara is half awake but pretending to be asleep,the light from outside illuminating in her cabin because Sokka probably forgot to close the door. Still trying to cling on and get as much sleep as she needs before she eventually fully wakes up and gets ready for the day. She didn't get that much rest the night before, constantly thinking about how today is the day she'll finally see Aang and the rest of her friends in almost half a year. She's enjoying this peaceful moment of just the sound of her thoughts and waves of the ocean slamming against the large wooden boat. At least until...

"KATARA! KATARA LOOK WE ARE ALMOST AT THE-" Sokka bursts into the small cabin, screaming and yelling on the top of his lungs, breaking Katara's peace. She turns over onto her side, trying to get a better look at her brother in this groggy, half asleep state with her eyes half open. The light previously illuminating in the room now directly shining onto her crystal deep blue eyes. Sokka now just noticing that Katara was, or at least appeared to be asleep. Kind of regrets bursting into the room, he whispers,

"Oh.. um sorry, I'll leave now, sorry for disturbing you... yeah and.. I'm going to leave," Just as he is about to leave the room and shut the door behind himself, Katara lets out a quick yelp,

"WAIT, it's fine. I have to wake up sooner or later, I didn't catch what you were saying before, also what time is it?" Trying to make sure he doesn't leave the room and she doesn't forget to ask anything. Sokka, in a sort of confused state replies,

"OH, um it's almost noon, I was also going to say that we are almost at the shore of the air temple island, we'll be there in a little over 45 minutes." Sokka shrugs and leans against the door, which pushes open and he almost collapses over, he manages to grab the door frame and lift himself up. Katara stopped listening to anything after Sokka said she only had 45 minutes to get ready, although she likes her sleep, she would appreciate it if he had woken her up the same time he did. Katara leaps out of her hammock and quickly folds her blanket, which had fallen onto the floor, and puts it on the hammock, trying to make it look presentable. Without any words she pushes Sokka out of the room into the hallway leading to the deck and locks the flimsy wooden door. She does her regular morning routine, except this time panicking to try to do everything in time before they arrive to the outskirts of republic city. She puts on fresh clean set of clothes while simultaneously brushing her teeth and washing her face . She gets to the hair part of her morning routine, she ducks under her hammock and grabs her metallic water tribe comb, rubs it against her shirt to get any dirt off and starts quickly brushing quickly through her hair. While she is tying in her hair loopies with her classic sky blue beads, she thinks to herself 'it's a new day, why don't I try try something different' so instead of her usually hair loopies, she decides to braid them and pinning both braids together at the back of her head with her signature bun. Getting ready all in just under 40 minutes. She unlocks and pushes through the fragile door and quickly runs up the sturdy, yet wet stairs, almost falling over by how slippery they were but catching herself. She runs over the ship ledge, being adjacent to Sokka. Both of them being able to see Republic City and Air temple island. It's raining but they sky is still a bright blue and the sun shining . Sokka starts waving his arm in excitement and exclaims,

"I CAN SEE SUKI, KATARA! SUKI IS RIGHT THERE!" Excitement fills Sokka's head as he is smiling with glee, even though he had been gone for less time than Katara, he was basically inseparable from Suki. Katara stares at the air temple ship port, although she can't see Aang yet, she was still excited to see Suki and all of her happy thoughts about seeing him again fill her head with joy and memories, until she remembers, oh my- how could she have forgot, She pulls her gaze away from air temple island and runs across the boat, down the sturdy stairs, swings open her door and bolts to her bed, looks underneath the newly folded blankets and eventually looks underneath her pillow to find the object she had been clutching onto to yesterday . She drops the scraps into a small rough linen bag, ties it shut with the attached drawstring and tucks the small bag into her dress pocket and buttons it closed, takes a second to breathe and then rushes out of her room again to meet up with Sokka just as they pulled up to the shore. Before Katara can say a word to him, he springs off the boat and splashes onto the deck and runs over to embrace Suki. Katara waits for the ledge attached to the boat to be fully secured onto the port and hulls both her's and Sokka's luggage down the ramp. Annoyed that Sokka didn't even bother to lift up a hand and help. Suki takes notice to Katara, she lets go of Sokka and says,

"Hold on Katara, let me help you with that." Suki always had a kind and caring personality from the day that she met Team Avatar. Suki's words went through one ear and out the other as Katara was enjoying the beautiful scenery, She left during the winter time so she didn't get to see the island in its full glory. She accidentally bumps into Suki and in the split second Suki grasps onto both of Katara's hands. Katara looks up into Suki's blueish green eyes for a half second, so clear that she is able to see her own reflection. Reality hits her and she lets go of Suki's grip as she blushes in embarrassment.   
"um, sorry." Katara utters out awkwardly. Before Suki can pick up a piece of luggage, Sokka jumps in -to Katara's annoyance - and hugs Suki again before pressing his lips against hers.  
"I've missed you so much Suki!" He cries as he runs his fingers through her hair, which unravels her ponytail and causes her barrett to fall out. Katara manages to grab it before it hits the grounds, taps Suki on the shoulder and asks,

"Hey um here is your pony tail holder, also do you know by any chance where Aang is?" Suki turns to face Katara and says

"Oh sorry, he's in the air temple making dinner." She smiles and turns back to talk to Sokka.  
"No worries!" Katara says, grabbing her 2 bags, awkwardly cracking a smile, slowly walking backwards with her arms crossed and tucked behind herself, holding tightly onto her sacks behind her back. Just as she gets out of Sokka and Suki's line of sight, she turns around, unraveling her arms and running as fast as she can up the mountain, butterflies filling her stomach. She's anxious, she hasn't seen Aang in so long. Her face blushing in a rose red pigment, her eyes getting watery with joy. She wipes away the tears from her eyes as she approaches the entrance of the air temple, looking up at awe at the tall door towering over her. Hey pupils widen, the crystal engravings of the door shining on her eyes just how the stars were in the sky the night before. She presses her hand against the door, she pauses for a second and looks at her pocket. 

'is he going to like it?' she's contemplating her decisions again, she isn't even done with it yet. She thinks about what Sokka said, and she knows he is right but for some reason she has a gut feeling that something isn't.. going to go well. She lets go of her anxious thoughts and pushes open the heavy door, making sure to slowly close it behind her, trying not to make any noise, she looks around the large quaint space but she can't see Aang anywhere. Slightly disappointed, she unhooks the button to her pocket and takes the small baggie out, putting it aside on a tiny wooden table tucked in the corner of the room, trying to make it not so visible by putting it in between the back of a picture frame and it's stand, she straightens out the frame and she takes a second to look at the small painting, it's a picture of her, Aang, Sokka, Toph, Zuko and Suki. While she is trying to be cryptic with hiding her half finished surprise, Aang walks out of the kitchen with a finished craft in one of his hands. Wiping his head with his other, free arm. He looks around and sees a familiar silhouette in the corner of the room, shocked and flustered, he runs over, tying to stay light on his feet, to the bookshelf adjacent to the doorway to the kitchen, covering it up with a book. He quickly turns around and tries to distance himself from the bookshelf, hoping the silhouette who he assumes to be Katara doesn't notice him, to his luck, she doesn't. He doesn't quite pay attention to what she is doing either, nervous that he might have accidentally exposed the surprise that he made for her. He takes a step closer to the center of the room, raises his hand to wave at her and in a confused tone, he asks,

"Katara? Is that you?" He moves his hand above his eyes to form makeshift viser to block the sunlight out, Katara jerks her head around and cusps her hands together, excitement fills her body,  
"AANG!" She exclaims, without second thought she rushes towards him and he follows suit, smiles both across their faces. They collide, wrapping their arms around each other. Aang slightly lifting her off the ground as Katara presses her hands against his shoulders, looking down at the love of her life for quick second right before Aang puts her down. She moves her hands from the top of his shoulders to just her finger tips clasping together on the back of his neck, pushing herself against him. She hadn't felt this happy in months. She moves and tucks her head in and pressing her forehead in between his neck and chest. Aang slowly rocking her. He was getting kind of lonely all alone in Republic City, sure he could also see Toph, Suki or Zuko. Heck even Mai, but most of them were busy with their own things and he respected that. It also just wasn't the same as seeing Katara. His mind drifts off and he thinks about how they met, how Katara was the first person he knew after 100 years, it took a little time for him to adapt but she was always there for him, and he couldn't thank her enough for that. Katara's voice breaks his train of thought. 

"I missed you so much." she whispers, her voice cracking a little bit. Aang's heart warms up as she says this.

"I missed you too." Aang says with a gentle smile on his face. They both let go of their tight grips, now holding onto each other's hands. Aang comes his fingers through her hair and tucks a piece of it behind her ear, taking notice to what Katara has done to it.  
"I like your hair." he states in an upbeat attitude. Katara exchanges a smile, happy he noticed. They spend a few more seconds just staring at each other and eventually they both shut their eyes, standing there in silence. After a few more seconds, Katara lets go of Aang's hands, having one of her hands resting on her hip,

"So do you have anything planned for today?" Aang, who still has his eyes closed, blinks them open and steps back, embarrassed, he wonders how long he had his eyes closed. Even though he knows Katara doesn't really care, he still tries to impress her and make her feel less awkward as possible. Katara lets out a giggle, Aang doesn't notice but his face is bright red. He finally responds to Katara's question.

"Oh umm, no not really, I went to all my meetings earlier today, I was going to make lunch right now, or I guess by the time it's done it'll be dinner, because Suki was going to bring Sokka over," he pauses for a second " You don't need to help with that- it's fine," 

"No it's fine I'll help," Katara says, walking towards the kitchen.

"Katara- please it's fine-" Aang grabs onto her arm. She turns around, placing her hand on Aang's shoulder.

"It's fine, we can do it together, plus who else is going to make the stuffed sea prunes?" She rolls her eyes in a jokingly manner and shoots him a quick smile. The both walk into the kitchen together- hand in hand.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's around 3 pm. Katara and Aang are almost done with making dinner. Both are just making small talk, asking cute questions and stuff from not seeing each other in months. Aang not being able to hide his happiness and joy, constantly wearing a smile on his face. They haven't just had a conversation like this in a while, Katara or Aang were both either busy or had to deal with more important issues than asking what inspired her to braid her hair loopies today. He does however feel kind of guilty, in a way, he doesn't want to tell Katara how he's been feeling without her because he doesn't want to seem too attached, and he also doesn't want to make it obvious that he has a surprise for her. He isn't exactly the best liar. Getting a bit distracted, he completely forgets that he was even cooking in the first place until Katara's hand is waving in front of his face. At first he can't even decipher her words until,

"AANG, hello? Are you okay?" Aang comes back to reality as Katara says this. She's annoyed but also concerned, hoping she didn't ask anything uncomfortable. Aang in all honesty was just happy they were having a normal conversation that wasn't directly about their jobs. They kind of stare awkwardly at each other, not knowing what to do, just the sound of boiling water in the background. Then Aang realises that he was asked a question. 

"Oh i-"

"I didn't notice-" they both uttered at the same time, both interrupting each other, Katara steps a little bit backwards and stick her hand out gesturing at him and saying,

"It's okay, you can go first." Aang just takes the offer, knowing that there is no point in arguing who is going to talk first. 

"OH, yeah, you're question, I'm fine Katara, don't worry." He says, leaning onto the counter with is hand and cracking a little smile. Katara holds onto his other hand, and whispers in a calming voice,

"Well if you need to tell me anything let me know. We can go take a ride on appa later if you don't mind." she smiles back at him, blushing a bit. Before he can respond, she also adds in

"OH YEAH, sorry I forgot to tell you this but I think your last cream tart is done." pointing at the cream tart that's been sitting on an open fire for a while now. Aang kind of startled by her change in tone, snaps back and rushes towards the cream tart, hoping it didn't burn or overcook. To his luck, it wasn't. He uses firebending to discard the fire, creating a bit of smoke but quickly dispersing it. He takes the other 3 dessert tarts for that have been sitting for a little while now, exists the kitchen and takes them to a small dining space with 4 chairs, one for him, Katara, Suki and Sokka. He centers all 3 tarts around the food already there and quickly runs back to the kitchen and without noticing, he bumps into Katara who is holding a few plates, just as they are about to topple over, he latches onto the other side of them and takes half of the plates off,

"Aang- it's fine," she states, grasping onto the plates now in Aang's arms.

"Katara- just let me help you, it's not going to hurt anyone." She rolls her eyes and giggles a bit and replies,

"You know what? Thanks Aang, I hope you know I'm just teasing with you." She gives him a soft elbow bump as they both head to the dining table, Aang making sure to grab the last tart, almost burning himself by forgetting how hot it was, dropping it on top of his plates. He quickly runs to the table and slides the last tart onto it, along with setting up his half of the silver wear, sharing competitive but friendly grins with Katara. She's now trying to set up the utensils as parallel as possible- she's kind of a perfectionist but instead of seeing that as a flaw Aang sees it as a strength. Just as Aang and Katara finish setting up dinner, Suki and Sokka burst through the door. Immediately both Katara and Aang drop everything that they are doing and go to help greet and sit down Suki and Sokka.

" Aang! How are you doing? Long time no see buddy?" Sokka exclaims, nudging Aang with his shoulder, Aang swings his arm behind his head. Sokka, still excited, cheers as he leans in for a hug, Aang tightly hugs him back, Sokka patting him on the back as both Suki and Katara lean into the now group hug. Momo flys in from the other room and sits himself onto Aang's shoulder and starts liking his wing. 

"How are you little guy?" Suki softly says as she lets go of their short lived hug , reaching over and gently rubs the top of his head. Momo's eyes widen as he perks his ears up, he jumps off of Aang and onto Suki circling around her twice then finally laying down on top of her head. His heavy ears flopping over onto both sides.   
  
"Come, sit down, make yourselves comfortable." Katara cheers, giggling a bit because of the previous interaction between Suki and Momo. The four sit down in their respective chairs around the small table, each grabbing a serving of food for themselves. Momo quickly bounces off of Suki to nibble on some fruit from Aang.   
  
"So what were you up to in the Southern Water Tribe." Suki says, striking up a conversation with Katara. She leans on to Sokka's shoulder while asking this, anticipating for her response.  
  
"Well, I was only there for a about a month just because I'm the representative for the Southern Water Tribe but it was pretty good, I was happy to be back at home and I got to see Gran Gran and-" Sokka brags, not realizing he wasn't asked the question. Suki has her hand resting on his shoulder, looking at him as he cuts him off,

" That's nice Sokka but you already told me all of that earlier. I was kind of asking Katara since I didn't get a chance to really talk to her earlier." As she brings up Katara, she looks towards her direction.

"Oh, thanks for asking Suki, I was helping the other waterbending masters with demonstrating some basic steps for the kids down there, I was also running a few errands, being a council woman and stuff, but like what Sokka said, it was nice to see some of my family again, they really expanded out there!" Katara explains happily but also hoping she didn't bore them with her story. Sokka, a bit embarrassed, leans his arm onto Aang's shoulder, trying to shift the conversation over to him. 

"Anyways ummm.... Aang what were you doing all this time by yourself?" Sokka asks. Aang swallows the piece of food he was eating, almost choking, he looks back at Sokka, shrugs and states

" Oh um well, I was just doing... airbending stuff... you know? Avatar duties and.... other important things." Aang says, partly lying through his teeth. He had been busy with Avatar stuff but there was a lot more to that. Constantly thinking about Katara, writing multiple letters only to just send one that he doesn't even know if she got. That's part of the 'other important things'.

The four continuing talking for about another hour or two, bantering and catching up on other things. All four of them really haven't met together like this is months so it was kind of refreshing in a way, Aang indirectly blocking out Suki and Sokka's words. Staring at Katara, her deep eyes accompanied with her supportive and caring attitude makes him so joyful that she is finally back. It just didn't feel right without her. Katara similarly thinking about the same thing, she knew he was busy with his own things but wishes that he was there in the water tribe with her. It was the first place where they unexpectedly met and both changed their lives forever. Noticing Suki and Sokka tossing flirts at each other back and forth, Katara sticks out her hand under the table, hoping Aang will take notice and hold onto her hand with his. Aang however is distracted, basically feeding half of his tart to Momo. Having a wide and over exaggerated grin on her face, she slightly taps Aang on the knee, which causes him to look under the table and once he gets the memo ,he holds onto her hand, also wearing an unnatural smile on his face, still kind of confused about what's going on. Suki catches on to their weird behavior,

"What the hell are you two doing." She asks, kind of intrigued, confused and also concerned. Both of them snap out of... whatever they were doing..

"I don't even-"

"I was-"

"I mean-"

Both simultaneously cutting themselves off, then both Katara and Aang break out in laughter, Suki and Sokka both joined in, laughing with them for a bit. They continue chatting, talking and cracking jokes about how awkward that was. Before Aang and Katara knew it, it was already 7pm and Sokka and Suki had left a while ago.

_________________________________________________________________________

Aang is lying on the cold hard floor of the air temple, still distracted in his emotions and feelings, tossing and air ball back and forth for Momo to chase around the room. Feeling a bit sad. 

"Hey umm Aang, you said you wanted to go on a ride on Appa and I think now would be the perfect time to go since the sun is just setting." Aang jerks up and immediately is greeted with Katara, happiness also seems to immediately enter his conscience. She brings him a lot of light and hope, he has no idea what state the world would be at without her. He airbends himself flat onto his feet and follows Katara to the back of the airtemple to the stables. She still remembered the exact way to them, waiting for this day. She used to dread flying every day but now it's one of her favorite things. Just as about they are arriving to the stable a thought pops into Katara's head.

  
"Hey Aang, I forgot something inside, I'm just going to grab it real quick." She doesn't want to say too much, knowing he might get suspicious and she doesn't want to potentially ruin any surprise. She also doesn't want one of the air acolytes taking it biaccident. She runs back inside and nearly crashes into the little side table. She frantically flips over the stiff picture frame and a sigh of relief comes with it as her linen bag is still in the same spot she left it. Knowing that no one touched it or went through it. Before she can even catch another breath, she drops the bag into her pocket, locking it, and quickly runs back outside, her heart pounding. Reaching Appa's lone stable, she helps Aang lift the saddle onto his back. 

"Hey, you know you could have just waited for me and I would have helped you instead of you trying to do it by yourself." Katara giggles, teasing Aang again. Aang gives back a chuckle, rolling his eyes and saying

"Well your instincts said you had to grab something inside so was I just supposed to ignore them? or-" She jokingly pushes him as he said this. He couldn't even finish his sentence without having a giggling fit of his own. 

"Hey Appa! Katara's back!." He states as he walks around to face him. In a split second he is covered with Appa's silvia. He chrotles a bit as he wipes the liquid off his face with his thin sleeve. Katara gives Appa a big hug, happy to see her furry friend. Aang shoots himself up with airbending to sit on top of Appa's back/neck. He then grabs onto Katara's hand and waist, slowly lifting her up. 

"So what did you need to get from inside?" Aang asks curiously. To him it was a simple question from his simple monk self, but to Katara, she wanted the moment to be special, it wasn't really something she would just tell him. A long pause is shared between them, Aang notices Katara tapping her thumbs together. 

"You know what, forget that I said anything, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"Aang, oh no it's fine, it's not really uncomfortable I just don't want to talk about it and I-" She starts combing her hair with her fingers, just what she wanted not to happen might actually happen. Progressively getting more anxious, Aang cuts her off. 

"Katara it's fine, if you don't want to talk about about it you absolutely don't have to but if you ever need to talk about anything else don't be scared." He beams, he leans over to kiss her on the cheek, She smiles back and starts blushing. She puts her hand on the center of Appa's warm, fluffy neck and Aang holds onto it. 

"Appa, yip yip." He commands, Appa roars and flies into the air. 

It's just like the first time she flew on him, still amazed and yet a little bit frightened, but holding onto Aang, she isn't scared, she trusts him, and those few words that he said to her, although he doesn't know it, means a lot. Just as they are reaching the skyline, they can see the sun setting, the stars start forming in the sky, the same stars she saw earlier and even though she doesn't know it, those were the exact stars Aang so happened to look at last night. Aang gaze reaches the stars, his grey eyes mirroring the few clouds in the sky along with a few sparkles for the stars shining bright just as his personality. He turns his head to look at Katara, he wouldn't trade anything in the world for this moment. The skies turn into a deep blue color, matching the color of Katara's eyes. They haven't really just had a calm and restful moment like this alone. Not one emotion distracting or overflowing them. Just a harmonious moment of love and safety. Aang slowly closes his eyes, just enjoying the moment.

"Hey, What's that?" Katara snaps in a concerned tone. Aang sits up, looking around, but can't see anything, everything is blurry to him. The harmonious moment he was just in came to an end.

"Katara what are you talking about." He shrugs, rubbing his eyes until his eyesight progressively becomes more clear.

"Ugh, nevermind, I can't see it anymore." She utters, kind of confused, she could have sworn that she say something suspicious, her eyes, alone with Aang's go toward this open park space area. This wasn't there when Katara left. Before she can mention anything about it, Aang points it out.

"Hey, you weren't here for this but that's Republic City Park. We established it a few months ago." Aang cheers in excitement, hoping Katara's happy with the minor improvements in the city. 

"Oh that's so cute!" She pauses for a second and turns over to Aang to see a slight bit of red on his face. " I hope it isn't a hassle since it's the night time, but do you mind showing me around?" She asks, now unknowingly blushing with Aang. 

"Yeah sure! I don't mind!" He cracks a smile and gives Appa the same command as before. Appa starts lowering himself close to the surface. Landing on a patch of wet grass. Aang's delighted that she even asked about the park, it felt so long ago that he established it that he thought she was there for it. This is what he means when he says she's supportive, even for the smallest things she likes to account for. She finds meaning in everything. As soon as they touch the ground, Katara leaps off of Appa, she grabs a small snack from on top of the saddle and feeds it to him. Appa lets out a softer roar. Aang softly lifts himself off and softens his landing. He runs over to the other side of Appa and clasps his hand against Kataras. They start walking across the pavement, their shoes brushing against it. 

"And that's the bridge." He points to the first structure in their view. "We actually didn't build it 'till a few months after we established the park but the people wanted it so the people got it." He shrugs, he doesn't know if if he's boring Katara or not, hopefully not, and he isn't. She loves seeing the new changes they made, it's kind of like a surprise of its own. Water IS the element of change.

"So Aang, I have something for you and I feel like now is an appropriate time to-" Just as she's taking a glance of her surroundings, Aang takes another step and immediately enters into a states of protectiveness.

"KATARA WATCH OUT." Aang screams in panic, he quickly grabs her and pulls her over and they topple the ground, Aang still over her, protecting her body, today was peaceful until this moment. Katara, confused as all hell, pushes Aang off of her, she sure wishes this isn't some kind of prank. Annoyed and aggravated, she holds him back from huddling over and asks in infuriated tone. 

"What the heck are you-" Before she can even finish yelling at Aang, a splash of water flings her back. Before her body can slam against the strong earth walls of the park, she forms a bit of ice from the water on top of the grass, grasping onto it and without second thought, flinghing bits and shards of ice at the attacker. The ominous figure jumps over Aang and starts throwing streams of water at Katara. She regrets thinking earlier that Aang asking about the craft she made earlier was the one thing she didn't want to happen. She didn't want THIS to happen. She can immediately tell that this person isn't a master waterbender, their technique and versatility wasn't nearly as good as Katara's. She was managing to just pull the rain from on top grass before and not even the actual water inside of it, not wanting to use all of the only source of water she had. She could tell this guy didn't even think that was possible by the way his eyes widened when he noticed. Two master waterbenders against an amatuer, why was this person even asking for a fight? Well that's what she thought until both her and Aang noticed 2 other benders, a firebender and an earthbender, near Appa. Aang immediately lift himself off his feat. Him pulling the other two triad members with and airbender stream along with the air exhuming from Appa's nostrils already making the two fall over, was enough to move the two over to the side. The two immediately start throwing all the rocks and fire they can at Aang but he dodges all the attacks with ease. 

"KATARA I'M HOLDING THESE TWO OFF, FOCUS ON THE OTHER GUY." Aang yells, noticing that Katara kept on glancing over. She follows what Aang said, focusing all her attention on the waterbender, which was unfortunate for him. Aang tries not to strike back at the other two attackers, knowing they'll just wear themselves out. He evades their blows, eventually it becomes hard for the two to even tell where Aang is because of how light and fast he is moving in the dark inky sky. He's kind natured and peaceful, Katara is similar, she's a calming person but she has an intimidating side that you do not want to play with. The two nearly collide, now back to back, fighting the triad which causes Aang to finally fight back, pushing the fire and earth bender back with an airbending blast. Katara continues blocking the waterbenders attacks with her own water she pulled from the ground. It's almost too easy for her. Other than the blow from earlier, this guy hasn't touched her once. She uses the collected water to form a ring around her body, swinging more ice shards towards him. The shards going at a record speed, hard for any amateur to go up against. Just as the amateur swings another string of

water, she swings it back, pushing himself a bit back. Katara not breaking a sweat, wearing a confident smile. She didn't want any of this to happen but she wasn't in the slightest worried for herself or Aang. Aang is sharing a similar feeling to Katara. He's just doing classic airbending avoid and evade tactics with the casual shifting of fire or kicking rocks to the ground. Both the benders flash an array of fire and earth at him, he ducks and rolls to the ground, in the process he forms two first of earth. Now directly combating the earth benders attacks, he's just giving Aang more fuel to add onto his makeshift armor. Simultaneously dodging the fire benders attacks and chucking a small rock at them. The groan that comes from the fire bender distracts the waterbender. Katara happy Aang just opened another advantage to her. She uses the string of water she had this entire time to swing it across and freeze a block of ice around his arm. The amatuer takes a second to stare at the ice, insanely confused. Just as he looks back at Katara, another lager stream of water is pulled from the grass, making the wisps of grass wither away, she swings the water around herself and uses all her force to push the wave against the waterbender, making him fling across the other side of the park, knocking him out. She chuckles and says,

"Wow I wonder where that move came from." her sarcasm makes Aang, who is across the park, laugh. As he's distracted fending off two benders, a water whip pushing away the fire bender makes him relieved. He looks at Katara and shares a smile with her. His seismic sense, just like it caught the attackers earlier, notices the earth bender chucking another rock and he uses that instinct he pull up a wall of earth that the rock directly slams into. He tears apart the rock into two and throws the slabs at the direction of the earth bender, who evades them both. Katara on the other hand has already pushes the firebender to the ground, fighting against a master waterbender as a firebender in the middle of the night really isn't that smartest thing to do. The firebender kicks at Katara, shooting out a flame which incinerates her limited water source. The earthbender noticing this, takes the opportunity to shoot a rock directly at Katara, knocking her down. Devastated that anyone would even attack them in the first place and now even more enraged that this guy would try to hurt Katara, he grasps onto one of the small boulders the earthbender chucked at him and without thinking, throws it back with all the anger and rage released. The earthbender gets thrown back just as the waterbender did. Aang turns around to aid Katara and he ends up seeing the firebender shoot another blast at her while she's still on the ground. Without second thought, he practically flies over and disperses the flames. Sharing the same emotion as Aang, the firebender carelessly throws another flame. Aang in the heat of the moment, separates and maneuvers through the fire, slaping his hands against the last attackers, grabbing onto them, stepping against his chest and in mid air he throws him over. slamming his body into the grass. Aang isn't known to get violent and he sertantilly wouldn't want to hurt anyone but as Avatar, he learned that you need to defend yourself, and more importantly, the ones that you love. Aang immediately runs over to Katara.

"Are you okay?" He worries that the small rock could have done more damage internally. A tear runs down his face as he holds onto her. 

"Aang, thankfully I'm fine, it just was unexpected." She lifts herself up and pats the dirt off her dress. Aang gives her another hug. In the distance a Republic City police carriage being pulled by as ostrich horse comes up near Aang and Katara. They tell them what happened and after filling out paperwork, the three triad members were taken away and they were already heading home on Appa. -

Aang and Katara are now in Appa's saddle, the are holding on, hugging each other, but not saying a word to each other. It's so quiet you can just hear their heavy breathing. They shotly arrive on the air temple. Just as Katara slides down Appa's tail, she pulls down Aang and whispers,

"I'm going to be by the shore up front... like that beach area, you can come if you want." Aang nods as he heads inside, pushing open the back door. He still can't process that all of that happened. 

_Maybe that's what Katara saw?_ He thought to himself, all the thoughts and emotions from before Katara asked him to go out with him fill his head again. He's just so upset and mad and... he can't even put it into words. Tears start running down his face as a sparkle in the corner of the room catches his eye. He leans in closer to get a better look and notices that it's the craft he made for Katara behind the book. He runs over, pulls it out and tucks it under his maroon robe, concealing it. He also notices that the picture frame was tilted over, even though he's confused, he thinks nothing of it, maybe Sokka tilted it over? He pushes open the front door next to the little table, being greeted by the darkness again. He uses a little ball of fire to light up his surrounding area and shuts the door behind himself, slowly making his way towards the beach. At first he can't even see Katara until she starts waving her arm, he lets out his fire and walks towards her, taking off his shoes and sitting next to her. Both of them leaning against each other, shoulder to shoulder, but not saying a word, parallel to when they were flying back on Appa. It's a soothing yet unsettling silence, the water from the shoreline pushing against their feet and slowly pulling away, the wind having a mind and a freedom of its own. Both of them break the silence,

"Aang, what's wrong,"

"Katara, are you okay," they both say at the same time, letting each other finish their sentences and both responding to their respective questions,

"It's just- today wasn't the day I imagined-" Aang sighed, resting his head against his bent knee. Not knowing if Katara was even asking him about that or not.

"I understand, I just wanted today to be perfect, It's been so long since I have seen and talked to you, face to face and I just didn't expect this." She places her hand on his shoulder calmly, he looks back at her,

"Well nothing's perfect....." he pauses and look up directly at her beaming eyes, still glittering as always.

"except you" They both say in unison, a rosey blush appears all over both of their faces. Aang's depressing thoughts from earlier slowly drift away as he drifts back into their conversation.

"You can't expect everything to be perfect, it's understandable, but some of the best moments are made from imperfections." He says, smiling at her.

"And you can't expect everything to go the way you planned it to-" she snarkily remarks, she continues on,

"You might be the avatar, and everyone might expect you to have a clear plan, but it isn't always that way." She shares back the soft smile. 

"You're absolutely right." he responds, 

"And you're right too, we never really were in ideal or expected situations back then but we always made light of it-"

"Like that time we were at the fire nation village during the war and exposed yourself as a waterbender to help all those people, we weren't in an ideal situation, the invasion was only in a few weeks but you still pulled through and helped them." He explains, admiring her bravery during that time.

"They would probably still have that factory if you didn't help me destroy it." she chuckles

"Don't downplay yourself like that, you would have destroyed it by yourself with ease." He shoots her an honest compliment.

"- but you were there supporting me the minute you found out." She blushes a bit more.

"Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if you never survived that lightning shot, the entire hope for the world... gone in an instant ." she confessed, not really ashamed though, just sharing her thoughts.

"Katara- I may have defeated Ozai, but if you weren't there for me since day 1- I don't know where I would be. I might have been, and still be the hope this world hinges on, but you gave me hope and you saved the world just as much as I have." 

"Oh, I never really brought it up but, thanks for the letter, it means a lot." She mumbles, shifting over the conversation, she didn't exactly know when to talk about it but getting a letter from someone, especially Aang, was something that made her feel a lot better.

"Oh well... I'm happy you got it, I was afraid you didn't get it-" He says, not really smiling anymore, before Katara can say a word, he continues,

"I'm just- I felt so lost without you, and I.. missed you a lot, these past few months were kind of difficult, I was so lonely-" He gets the real thing he's been meaning to tell her off of his chest.

"I kind of felt the same way- we are both very strong people.... but I think this conversation is proving that we are stronger together-" She rests both her hands onto his shoulders, then tucks them away, 

"Aang... I have something for you... it isn't finished but I feel this is the right time." She unbuttons her pocket and pulls out the lenin bag, slowly untying it and pulling the cloth out. Holding it up right above her face, the pearls still managing to shine in the dark.

"You made me a betrothal necklace-" He says shocked, cusping his hands over his mouth, a tear trickles down his face. Katara ties it around his neck,

"So, do you like it?" She whispers hopefully, those worried thoughts from yesterday entering her head again.

"Katara.. I love it!" He says as he presses two off his fingers against the teal stone ,carved as a horizontal crescent moon, his third finger pressing against a white circle shaped crystal that looks exactly like another one on the other side of the moon.

"I also got something for you," he pulls out a candle, with the surrounding glass around it shaped into forming a lotus type shape.

"Aww Aang- this is so sweet, I love this, thank you so much!" She smiles and wraps her arms around him. He places the candle in the water.

"It's a candle, and i like to think it represents us, and the places we might go." He smiles as he lights the candle using firebending , Katara then pushing the candle away, the light still close enough to illuminate on them.

The two continue talking for hours, just sharing old memories and opinions. The night goes bye as their discussions get more deeper and personal. Both actually never really having a conversation like this before. Just their voices and the sounds of the oceans pushing back and forth. The darkness of the sky slowly fading away, both Katara and Aang stand up and get ready to go back inside. Just as they are about to leave the beach, they share an intense gaze, Katara staring at his peaceful and kind hearted, grey, cloudy eyes and Aang staring back at her azure, crystal like, calming yet intimidating eyes. Now holding onto their arms, Katara leans in and Aang is no longer intimidated, he also leans in, wrapping his arms around her waist as they collide, sharing a kiss. Just as the sun rises and the ocean and sky separate, so do Katara and Aang. They share a loving embrace, the purple-pink sunset radiating behind them.

"I love you."

"I love you too."


End file.
